Penguins. They are cute, well dressed, love to eat fish, slide on some ice and play and some snow. And you have to give it to them, they are always well dressed for any occasion. One of my favorite things to do at Sea World is to go to where the penguins are and they have this moving walkway where you can just stand as it moves you as you admire the penguins. I mean if you get the chance to, take one of the tours where you can actually have a penguin with you and it is pretty awesome. But did Developer Archiact really make a game about penguins in VR and is it any fun? Let’s find out with Waddle Home for the PlayStation VR.
Waddle Home is a puzzle game where it seems that an evil robot has decided that everyone should not enjoy penguins and in fact, this evil robot wants to lock them up against their will and nothing is sadder than sad penguins locked up. So since no one needs to be sad, it will be your job…your duty to grab the DualShock 4 controller and help rescue these penguins so that they can escape by a spaceship. Since I am not going to be sad nor see saddened penguins, I was more than happy to do my part and rescue them from this evil.
As you rotate around the level, the penguins seem to been drinking some energy drinks because all they do is waddle all over the place and not only do they do this all over the place, but when they hit a wall or block, they only turn right. So you could either let them continue to do this or help them get home. How does one do this? How can you be a hero in their lives? Well, you must use the DualShock 4 controller to raise and lowering blocks, open doors, and escape the evil of the guards that might be patrolling. And if caught by the guards, which only turn left, your caught penguin is then sent back to his cage where you will have to attempt to make sure that penguin can get home. Don’t be the one that let the penguins down.
So not only do you have to try to make your right only waddling penguins escape, but you have to watch out for the left turning only guards who want to capture your penguins and send them back to their sadness of a place cage. And when you are trying to collect eggs and later on more parts of the levels that can be raised and lowered all while also trying to rotate the level to help the penguins escape with trying to complete the level in the quickest time possible, there are lots of things can be happening at once.
In a game like Waddle Home, the sounds need to have some fun to it. Anything from quirkiness to calming. Hearing the guards capture a penguin and say “back to the cage or silly penguin” has that old school sci-fi tone to it and hearing everything sound like it should is a real plus. Visuals are simple and nice as well as easy on the eyes. Seeing the moon at night or the sunset is simple but adds something here. Archiact did a fantastic job on the outlooks of the penguins to the simplistic look of the guards that again pay homage to the old sci-fi movies that I was not really expecting, but glad they did it.
I know this is a launch title, but if there would be anything that I would love to see added, even now, is leaderboards. Being able to see who cleared a certain level in the quickest time just to see if you can become the best. Does it need it, no, but it’s one of those “it would be awesome if it was added” type of an idea.
Waddle Home may or may not be for everyone. I had fun playing and Ido like that no penguins actually lose a life. If they are caught, they just restart in the cage, which makes Waddle Home a game the whole family can play and that really says a lot. And at times when it seems that some families start to drift more apart, isn’t nice to know there is still a place in Virtual Reality that you can all waddle home together and have some fun?
Waddle Home is out now on PlayStation VR and is also available on the Gear VR on the Oculus Store and Steam. A review code was provided.
To learn more about Waddle Home, please visit the site. To learn more about Archiact visit their site, like them on Facebook, follow them on Twitter, follow them on Instagram and subscribe to their YouTube channel.
In case you missed the trailer, please enjoy. Until next time, I have more penguins to help get home.
Mr. PSVR, January 13, 2019, theplaystationbrahs.com
